3m leading the way higher this morning. also shares of dollar general rallying after the company is offering 78 ining $78.50 for co family dollar. those top the biggest gainers on the s&p 500, both higher to the tune of about 10% and 4.7% respectively. now, first up both facebook and twitter rolling out a couple of changes to their main pages. facebook is testing a new satire tag to help users tell the difference between real news and articles from places like the onion. meantime, tweets other users have favorited right into your time line. so popular tweets go right into your feed whether you follow that person or not. especially the latter one's been controversial. >> the first one's going to help a lot of people. i know on my facebook news feed, usually political news. people will be, like, oh, my gosh, i can't believe this. yeah, really? did you check the headline? it's not actual news. then the second, says i think some diehard twitter users are

upset, but it kind of makes sense. if you favorite something, it makes sense for twitter to tell other people. >> i don't like it. i hate it. >> i think they just need to make it clear that favorite means something different from retweet. but this is a way to increase engagement. maybe turn it a different color. >> it's made one of the private features of twitter public. >> as much as it was different. retweet is when you want to send out a tweet to everybody else. favorite is more subtle. it's when you want to acknowledge to the tweeter, now maybe you want to solve it. now they're making both the exact same thing. they'll do anything to get engagement. >> playing around with twitter trying to make it work better but also an acknowledgment of some of these things. i didn't realize the way you could see what other people are up to so obviously. the thing i don't like about this move at first i was using favorites as bookmarks. articles you might want to read later, things you want to read later. it was more of a promotional tool. >> jon's right.

favorites have been a way to acknowledge to the person, hey, i appreciate what you did here, but i don't necessarily want to rebroadcast it to the entire world. but i think there's a way that twitter could communicate your favorite to the entire world where it's clear what you meant. i didn't necessarily want to show this to everyone, but i kind of sent a smiley face to the person. it's kind of like a little emoticon. >> you can tell how many people have retweeted or favorited them. it indicates those winks. >> that's if you see that tweet at all. >> and also, it started oud at a time where you couldn't store things for later. now instapaper and pocket are both integrated with the twitter applications. so you are able to store an article. so favorite really is to say this is one of the favorite things that i've seen today. you know, on the other hand, i think sat fire is very important as a tag because on the web, people are getting to content from so many different places. a lot of people might see an onion article and know what the onion is. >> i think this is your fault. it's because of places like buzzfeed, nobody knows what's

real anymore. >> buzzfeed did far more less satire than the onion. >> headlines like 20 ways to peel an onion. they don't know -- there are so many headlines, and you're just trying to figure out, is this a real story or not? because the lines anymore. >> how different is it really from television and cable? right? you're flipping through cable channels and content that you come to. there's been times where actually i've watched science fiction shows and in the first few seconds, i don't know if it's one of those real missions to look for the loch ness monster or whether it's actually sci-fi. >> orson welles all over again. "war of the worlds." >> networks versus the content on networks and it's important to be able to identify where things are coming from. >> it is. although a lot of people, to us, there's a huge difference between it coming from one newspaper or another. i wonder, you know, with the variety of outlets out there, again, whether people are even aware of what that means. next up, there's been a lot of talk lately about weakness in tablet sales. one former apple exec is saying don't worry, the sky isn't falling. in a blog post the former

president of apple's products division says tablet sales are going through an expectations adjustment period where people realize they're not pc replacements. he says there's still improvement in tablet design, but they aren't replacing computers any time soon. that seems clear from the recent numbers. >> maybe. for me, a tablet is a pc replacement. my wife and i at home don't really use laptops anymore. we use our tablets for pretty much everything. but it is a bit of a -- you have to have some workarounds, some things like printing that don't work quite as well as they should. but i think that's mostly a software issue. he's right, it will probably take a couple years before the mainstream can really adopt these as a replacement. but i think it could get there. >> i think the whole argument is moot to a certain point because i think the two classes of devices will basically converge. the new version of ios will allow you to have multiple screens. the new version of the mac operating system is more like ios. can you get keyboards on these devices. so i think ultimately the

devices of the future will be something like a macbook air and microsoft doing the same thing with their surface as well. the distinction is going away. >> i think everybody assumed, though, that was happening in a smoother way than it clearly is. if you look at the latest quarter for apple tablet sales and some others as well which do show a slowing in momentum. so the question is have we now been knocked to a permanently slower trajectory? >> that could be it, right? because people upgrade tablets a lot less than they upgrade phones. and people upgrade computers even less frequently. so there could actually be less repurchasing going on in the market. that could be a one-time thing that could be dramatically changing the environment. >> you could be right but i also think it's too soon to say what the tablet replacement cycle is. apple didn't give us that much in the past year to force an upgrade. once we get touch i.d. in the next version of the ipad, we get more software, we could see a little more interesting stuff. but you mentioned multitasking and ios on a new level. that might not show up in iosa.

we expected to see it but we didn't see it demoed. it could be another year or so. >> i did not know that. if they do not get multitasking out for the ipad, that will set is back even further in the enterprise. that is really something that everybody needs to be able to copy numbers from a document to a spreadsheet on that device is sort of the key thing that people need to do to be work-force productive. >> when is the next update release of the ipad expected? >> of the ipad or of ios? >> i don't know. now i'm getting all confused. >> normally historically we've gotten the ios update, the software update at the same time as the phone as iphone. that comes first. and then a little bit later we get ipad. >> so that software update could come at the next big event, this one that's in early september? >> september 9th. >> usually the update comes a little after the event, around the time that the iphone ships, everybody gets the new ios. >> you typically look for the devices to start shipping two to four weeks after that announcement september 9th. look at early october people could be getting the first new iphones in their hands.

not sure about ipads. >> i already know people who have their iphones in various states of disrepair and almost can't use them. >> got the duct tape, trying to make it to the end of september. yes. >> i'll tell everybody know, east coasters, you've got to wake up at 3:00 a.m. in the morning to get the 12:00 a.m. purchase time if you want to be able to get your devices shipped to you first. >> oh, my gosh. >> my alarm will be set for 3:00 a.m. eastern that night. >> you're crazy. >> it's kind of fun. it's like whack-a-mole. a great look at google's stock process when it looks at buying another company. apparently ceo larry page asks whether a possible acquisition passes the so-called toothbrush test. in other words, is it something you will use once or twice a day, and does it make your life better? to google, the answer to that question is a lot more important than profitability, sales, near-term financial gain. it's kind of a way of highlighting how google prefers to do big deals by itself as opposed to just relying on the expertise of those wall street banks. who only brushes their teeth once a dwa, byay, by the way?

>> twice a day. now we know larry page brushes his teeth with $1,000 bills. >> the beginning of the article talks about the toothbrush thing, and then the entire rest of the article is how bankers are not being used in giant transactions. they pull out skype at $8.5 billion. beats at $3 billion. you know, waves was $1 million with no banker. that's really the heart of the article. you don't need complex cash flow charts. bankers are being cut out. >> they're justified in some of the payouts that across the country always raise eyebrows. people go how can uchtumbler be worth $1 million. do you think this backfires? >> definitely. the fact that these companies are doing without bankers speaks more to the time that we're in. if you're purchasing a mature company, that's something different. we're in this period where we've got cloud, we've got mobile really taking off. so it's hard to value these companies in a traditional way. you want to find the companies that have the most engagement, the one that people are most

excited about in those high-growth areas and just place your bet. it's not going to work in five years. >> what would a banker have done with the oculus acquisition? >> but is oculus something you use twice a day? >> well, i think these are things that you could possibly use twice a day. i think i would put that in the daily habit-type thing. they use their oculus light, their mobile phone, and the toothbrush habit would also apply to enterprise technologies or technologies used to develop software. the question could be does a software developer use this twice a day? does someone managing a server farm use this twice a day? that kind of logic has a like chestnut flavor to it. >> we should mention as well the tenth anniversary of google's ipo is tomorrow. believe it or not. they went public -- it was one of those where 2004 seemed like this crazy valuation. did it trade really well right away? >> it was a deduction auction so it was a little odd. there were a lot of people who said who would pay this much? it's crazy. it was controversial at the time.

>> and then up 1200%. we'll have much, much more as you can imagine on that tenth anniversary of google ipo later. now we're going to do a quick check again of where we stand on the markets today with the dow up 150 points to 16,814. mary thompson is on the floor. mary, it's the sleepy, the dog days of august, but a pretty good performance so far this morning. >> certainly is a nice rally for the markets, as you point out, light volume. right now we're looking at maybe 2.7 to 2.8 billion shares changing hands here at the new york stock exchange. keep in mind on average the last 30 days, volume has been 3.3 billion. so certainly the rally today is unlike volume we should take note of that because sometimes that suggests the conviction isn't behind it. nevertheless, bulls are in charge with up volume here at the big board, swamping down volume by a margin of about 6-1. the reason for the rally concerns, easing tensions in ukraine as well as iraq. this has triggered a global rally. we saw strength? asia as well as gains in europe today. and that's trickled across here

in the u.s. take a look at the leading sectors. we have industrials, consumer discretionary, financial and i.t. all looking strong in today's session. and the s&p leaders really tell the story of today's session. that's because, of course, you have the big merger news in the retail space with dollar general bidding for family dollar. and topping a bid by dollar tree which is one of the worst performing stocks within the s&p 500. i'm sorry, i jumped ahead to the sectors. so there they are. let's take a look at the leading stocks within the s&p 500. again, as i mentioned, this tells the story of today's action. dollar general and family dollar up on the news. of course, that new bid. also airlines looking stronger today because we are seeing oil pullbacks. so along the delta, we're seeing strength in southwest air, one of the leaders within the s&p 500 and then the nar because earlier today we had that better than expected reading on home builders confidence. we came in at 55. we were looking for 53. that's going to look not only to home builders but the industrials, the leading group within the s&p 500 sectors that we follow.

industrials, of course, masco, one of the winners, a maker of home building products. so it is up just about 1.5% reflecting the strength there. we want to point out the only area of weakness we've seen today are the energy stocks. in particular, the exploration and production stocks. they are moving to the down side. and again, crude oil right now down just about $1.38. the dow, though, up about 154. back to you. >> mary, thank you. this monday morning the als ice bucket challenge still in the news after big names like bill gates, jeff bezos and elon musk followed in the action. i obliged, dousing myself at home over the weekend. now, one of my nominations was dell founder michael dell. check out his response. >> thank you for the nomination, jon. i issue the same challenge to meg whitman and samuel l. jackson. you have 24 hours. >> nicely done, michael.

nicely done. >> nice muscle going as well. >> well, it was first thing saturday morning. >> i'm going to wear a very baggy sweatshirt. i can't compete with these guys. it's too much pressure. >> simon hobbs is jacked. >> i know. i was chuckling when sara hit him with that bucket. listen, they've raised $15 million this summer for this challenge. that's incredible. that's what it's all about. they only raised, like, $1 million during the same period last year, correct? >> yeah, just under $2 million was the number. a lot of people cynical saying just donate the money. what i like about this is the online economy is all about attention and monetizing attention. that's what facebook does, google does, all these online celebrities do. it's being done for a great cause. so why not? >> and the virality is phenomenal. the fact that in 24 hours three people have to do it, and it all shows up in your feed and people are engaged with it. over the weekend, every time i went into facebook, it was ice bucket challenge after ice bucket challenge. >> somebody just asked me a

question, what happens when you get past and everyone starts to get really annoyed with it. obviously it's still for a great cause and it's still going to spread because of those effects you just mentioned. what happens then? >> it will die out like all these things do. what was it, there was something a few months ago. >> this is different than bla planking or owling. this is so important that i think people won't get annoyed about it. it could go for months. this could have a very long tail to it. >> it is. and people will get annoyed. they will. because it's inevitable. you see something over and over again. if i'm facebook or twitter, what do i know if i know this is going to be in people's time lines for months? >> you wait until kelly evans takes the challenge. great anticipation. i hear your sister challenged you? >> i am livid. i've given money. that's what this is all about. last night she got me. i don't know what i'm going to do. >> i know what you're going to do. and that's not all. kara swisher is going to join us

to take the ice bucket challenge live right here on "squawk alley." kara's going to join us just a little later on this hour. >> very good. that's all coming up. and up next, activist yahoo! shareholder eric jackson slamming marissa mayer. also, 50 cent and intel are teaming up on wearable tech. our exclusive interview with 50 cent is coming later this hour. "squawk on the street" will be right back. [ intercom ] drivers, to your marks. go! [ male announcer ] it's chaos out there. but the m-class sees in your blind spot... ♪ ...pulls you back into your lane... ♪ ...even brakes all by itself. it's almost like it couldn't crash... even if it tried. the 2015 m-class. see your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.

welcome back to "squawk alley." i'm julia boorstin. disney shares hitting a record high, up more than 1% this morning. it's on the heels of another strong weekend for "guardians of the galaxy," hitting nearly $420 million at the worldwide box office. and friday afternoon wells fargo upped its price target on disney's stock. this following a record better-than-expected quarter. the stock raiding up 1.1% to $90.25. jon, over to you. >> thanks, julia. yahoo!'s ceo marissa mayer has sold about $12 million in shares over the first six months of the year. and according to our next guest, she's done little to fix the core business at the company. eric jackson is the founder of ironfire capital and a yahoo! shareholder. he joins us from toronto. so eric, you're arguing that as many people would, the rise in yahoo! stock is due to alibaba, not to the core business. i want to push back on this, though, a little bit.

i mean, all the time stocks move in various directions, and it's not necessarily based on what the core business has done. you say the core business is valued less than it was when marissa took over. alibaba was undervalued, too. might not the ya hue business right now? >> it certainly is undervalued. that's why i'm still a shareholder. if marissa plays her cards right here and i think makes some smart moves with the coming alibaba cash versus some tumblr-like moves which i think would destroy value, i think there is a path that i could see that this stock could possibly even double from here over the near term. so there's -- there are differences in valuations all the time, especially in the sum of the parts story. but after two years, it's really not questionable that this core business is in a downward spiral. and it is certainly valued almost close to zero today.

some would say when you look at the possible tax savings of an alibaba or a softbank were to buy yahoo! it's worth even far less than zero at the current price. so that reflects on marissa, certainly. >> and eric, this is jon. when you go back in your article this morning and you go through all the stock sales that she's done on the program, on her selling program and you suggest that maybe she should be buying, would that alleviate your concerns? and what level would you like to see her buying stock at in the company now? >> well, listen. you know, she's getting an enormous compensation package. and she's not the first ceo to get one. she won't be the last. if she sticks around for another two years and the stock goes nowhere, she'll pocket $265 million for her five years of work according to my estimates due to her comp plan. so she has money to buy stock. how much should she buy? you know, recently aol stock got hit on the last earnings call, and it dropped from the 40s to the low 30s. and tim armstrong personally went into the market and bought $1 million worth of stock.

i think marissa should buy a lot more. she made about $155 million in her first year on the job at yahoo!. i would like to see her take 10% of what she made just in that one year, $15 million and go in and buy some stock. she certainly shouldn't be selling $12 million in stock. every two weeks she's selling $650,000. >> it's a fair point. and ceo compensation trends get under people's skin. but two things also i want to raise. one, terry semil, people were concerned about their level of compensation. but in retrospect, he was actually leading yahoo! pretty well and maybe shouldn't have been drummed out. number two, steve jobs, the turnaround at apple took quite a while. the imac started to catch on early, but the pc market was growing then in a way that yahoo!'s core business is in secular challenge and decline for mobile. so couldn't you argue that she needs more time? >> listen, i mean, bad managers always argue that they need more time. and that shareholders are being

impatient and they just need to wait another quarter, wait another year. so you have to make a judgment about whether you think it's worth sticking with someone. i mean, you know, you could have said well, why did she fire castro after 15 months? maybe he just needed a little bit more time. obviously she felt like she made a mistake in that hiring. she got rid of him. terry did make a lot of money and he did make mistakes while at yahoo! which i pointed out at the time like not buying google, not buying facebook even when they had that deal. i'll tell you one great thing about terry when you look back now ten years on is that he had incredible talent working under him. people like jeff wiener at linkedin, dan rosensweg. other really talented people who have gone on to some amazing things, at twitter and tech and v.c. and elsewhere. and that's something that you do not see under marissa mayer currently. i don't think she's doing a great job at all of growing talent. i have heard some reports that she has currently 36 direct reports. and that speaks to a control issue. and a not willing to let go

issue and grow your people underneath you. and that is a big difference between her and terry. >> jeff, jeff minich has an article that's kind of right next to yours this morning. he makes the argument that ad volumes are up, granted prices are down 24% which leads to that net 7% decline in core ad revenue. but he makes the argument that naisk native ads, ads which are content driven, are 40% of impression, showing a little bit of a way to the future in terms of her ad strategy. your thoughts on that article. >> well, i thought it was interesting because he said in his article that he quit yahoo! because he didn't like mayer's leadership. now he's making the defense that she really did have a strategy all along, which was, i think, as he laid it out, was to turn her back on the display business and totally focus on native, which is sort of another -- fancy way of saying a sponsored ad which yahoo! has never done well. on a lot of the yahoo! pages i see, they no longer have banner adds which are highly profitable. and they've inserted two native

ads within them that monetize at a far less rate. so i don't think it really matters if native ads are up. it's really a question of what's the total revenue. and i would challenge anyone to bring any ceo on here and say do you think it's a good idea when you have a really big, strong legacy display ad business that you could milk for years? to just turn your back on it right off the bat and totally focus on some new unproven revenue stream. it just doesn't make sense. >> well, you know, the honeymoon's over, it seems, either way. lots of controversy about mayer's tenure. we'll see what she does. eric, thanks. michael dell, bill gates, elon musk, just some of the names taking the ice bucket challenge over the weekend. but the best is yet to come. ricoh's kara swisher will take the challenge live here on "squawk alley." stay tuned. that's coming up a little later this hour.

welcome back. here's a look at a pretty strong session for the dow. up 159 points. but it's actually the nasdaq

lately, which has been reasserting some leadership here. that one up again almost to the tune of 1%, crossing a 13-year high. seema mody joins us now from the nasdaq. seema. >> kelly, nasdaq at a 13-year high despite this increased focus on geopolitical tensions. internet stocks playing a big role in today's trade. we're looking at yahoo! netflix, google and expedia all trading to the upside. expedia trading at a new all-time high. now, tech as a sector is up about 1% today. s&p capital i.q. pointing out valuation could be a factor here that traders are considering given that tech, according to sam soval, is trading at a meaningful discount to its historical price-to-earnings ratio. so valuation could be a factor in play here. biotech also contributing to the outperformance with celgene, gilead and amgen at levels not seen. can this hold?

>> absolutely. do my eyes deceive me? simon hobbs with the countdown to the close across europe. looking rather dry and warm. >> indeed. most of europe higher with the exception of germany. obviously a deescalation with the perception that the tensions with ukraine are not as bad as they were certainly on friday. so overall europe's up more than 1%. those that are exposed more to russia and to the crisis like germany have done even better as you can see a gain of almost 2% on where we are with the dax. the underlying state of the economy in europe, certainly the eurozone still in question. today the german central bank called into question whether it was right to assume that there would be a rebound in growth in the second half of the year. you know we had those terrible second quarter gdp numbers on thursday. because specifically, they say, of geopolitical risks. so that from the bank of germany. the bank of england also gave an interview over the weekend in which he said that maybe the boe wouldn't wait for real wages to rise before it raised rates there. it just had to be sure that real wages were on their way up. now, that's a slight contradiction to what he said about a week ago.

and it has boosted sterling, $1.673 despite the fact that actually there's some fascinating ufascinate ing news on the housing market in london. remember the housing market may be a bubble. debate as you will. up about 20% over the last year. today we learned that last month people actually lowered their prices in the london housing market by 5.9%, month on month, in order to sell their property. one of the major home builders in the uk, bovis, gave an interview with our colleagues in london today where they said despite the fact that interest rates are on their up in the uk and mark carney at the bank of england is tightening the lending rules on mortgages, they still think that uk housing is okay. take a listen. >> we're seeing clearly a strong housing market. interest rate rises are ultimately inevitable. as long as mark carney follows through with his comments, they're in a limited process, we feel that the market can deal with that.

>> mind you, that's the view of a home builder. back to you. >> thanks, simon. not about the candy shop anymore. now 50 cent wants to take you to the gadget shot. why he's putting his money into wearable technology. our ex-clusive interview later this year. and kara swisher is here to take the ice bucket challenge from facebook's sheryl sandberg. that's next when "squawk alley" returns. but what if you could see more of what you wanted to know? with fidelity's new active trader pro investing platform, the information that's important to you is all in one place, so finding more insight is easier. it's your idea powered by active trader pro. another way fidelity gives you a more powerful investing experience.

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welcome back. a pretty strong day and the nasdaq, as you just heard from our seema mody, helping that index rally almost 1% in the broader indexes as well are holding up in the face of a weekend where tension in the ukraine and russia in particular seemed to subside. to some extent watching headlines for the latest coming out of iraq as the u.s. continues air strikes there. but against that backdrop, the dow today up 159 points, almost 1%. >> yeah. impressive. sms audio's ceo and majority share hold shareholder curtis "50 cent" jackson. i asked him what inspired him to go into technology. take a listen.

>> this brand extension and opportunity was something i did. i was, like, first in that area. a lot of artists, in our culture of hip-hop, it would be something that was considered taboo. it was a crossover to be associated with a major corporation while being an artist. either you're an artist or you're a sellout. you're selling things at the same time. >> jay-z is doing it. >> everyone. >> puffy's doing it. >> it's the new way. >> dre is doing it, right? >> it absolutely is a necessity at this point because in order to create the marketing campaigns in the past, it would create a visible difference in your pop star or your really popular artist. you had to combine marketing dollars from different sources. like you see jennifer lopez or mariah carey music plays in a car commercial. with j. lo, they would assume they'd be able to attract a

latino audience. mariah's is just such a broad musical base that they would want her for those different purposes also. not all of them have the ability to make a deal. some of them are really strong artists and creatively and good creative pockets. not quite able to make a deal. i still need to be conscious of my ideas. the creative portion of my personality and character will allow me to come up with things or see things different ways sometimes. i've got to pull myself back. the only thing for me would be the fear of putting too many irons in the fire. because when people are not ready for my ideas, i look at money like it's the luxury that i've earned to create the now. it allows me to make my idea happen now. and that's it.

it means nothing else. so if they don't identify with what i'm saying at that point, then i'll invest myself. >> well, yeah, i also asked him what gives him the courage to go up against apple right now. and he said just watch. i'll bet you apple's going to be copying me with beats, having headphones that take your heart rate. >> i just thought that was interesting, the tension he was talking about whether can you sell out and still maintain your artistic integrity. >> yeah. it used to be you couldn't do that. but now all the popular artists are going for brand extension, and 50 cent has shown he's the master of that with vitamin water, his shoes, now the headphones. and he said when he travels around the world touring with his music, he sees the sales of these other things spike at the same time. it's his own marketing. >> even this weekend we saw tom hanks release a typewriter application called hanx with an "x" writer. it's amazing to see all of these celebrities entering technology. even tom hanks is doing an app.

>> he needs to come out with a volleyball, right? do something with wilson. >> yeah. that would have been better than the hanx ipad typewriter. bill gates, elon musk, some of the names taking the ice bucket challenge over the weekend. now the moment we've all been waiting for. re/code's kara swisher takes the challenge live here on "squawk alley." that's next.

if energy could come from anything?. or if power could go anywhere? or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything.

coming up at the top of the hour from right here at the new york stock exchange, with stocks reacting big time with geopolitical concerns, don't be scared. then the billionaire and the dollar stores. we're breaking down the big players and which companies could be next. and herb greenberg raises the red flag on tesla. why is he calling foul on the company's earnings quality? we'll see you at noon in just a bit. >> scott, thank you. looking forward to it. let's get a quick check here of markets with our julia boorstin and a "market flash." julia? >> well, dreamworks animation shares are spiking high they are morning. the company appointed a new cfo. and dreamworks animation's "how to train your dragon 2" is now the highest grossing animated film of 2014 after it had a huge opening in china, grossing $26 million. this more than eight times the performance of the first "dra n "dragon" debut bringing the total gross to $536 million. shares of that company now

trading up over 9% to $22.48. kelly, back over to you. >> all right, julia. and a nice pop in dreamworks, up 9%. and our rick santelli also keeping an eye on what's happening in markets this morning. rick? >> reporter: absolutely, kelly. and what really captures my attention, of course, is since the beginning of the year, interest rates have been moving lower, but they've really accelerated, taken out some significant levels several weeks ago at the 244 area. today we see the national association of home builders index shoot up a couple of points. are they related? of course they are, but should they be. that's what we're going to talk about after the break. ere the rt new car smell and the freedom of the open road? a card that gave you that "i'm 16 and just got my first car" feeling. presenting the buypower card from capital one. redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac - with no limits.

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welcome back. let's get straight out to the cem group with the santelli exchange this morning. rick? >> reporter: good morning, kelly, and thank you. interest rates really can be confusing. at the beginning of the year when we saw the big break, remember, we closed the ten-year at 3%. as january and the first six weeks of the year occur and interest rates drop, what we saw was actually that existing home sales and new home sales dropped as well, only to make a rebound over the last several months. today, we had the national association of home builders index and on the intraday chart, you can see that interest rates did pop a bit as they should. that's good news for the economy. but if you really want to consider that interest rates moving down because the economy may be weaker, global dynamics

might be softer, well, that isn't a good dynamic, and i think that that's borne out by the housing. it isn't necessarily the interest rate. it's also the availability of credit, and it's also about jobs. and even though many say the jobs market is tightening up, it's tightening up amongst a group of skilled workers. there's still many out there, 58 million, who could work, but they just have disappeared or stopped trying to find a job. and i think that those dynamics aren't good for the housing market. and when you take things in a broader context, of course the correlation between ten-year rates, even though it may be the duration of mortgages around seven years, there's going to be a correlation or supposed correlation between lower rates and better housing and higher rates and less housing. but in the end, really, rates are low enough that if history since the crisis teaches us anything, it's that there are many more dynamics at work. so today's national association of home builders index for august was improved by two points. so it was good. single-family sales, present and

future, were each up two. and traffic was up three. but really, the definitive test will be this week when we get new home sales. and the much broader swat to the market, existing home sales. and remember, there's also investor sentiment out there. because many, especially in multidwelling, it's an investor. it's more of a financial package than it is actually housing market. we all know that a significant proportion of new home and existing home sales gets attributed, of course, to cash buyers. and that really isn't an interest rate-driven fundamental. now, if you look at a chart on your screen from the ten-year going back to the end of may, you could clearly see that that 244 area is crucial. now, as you look at that, zoom back to my white board. here's myr rendition of that chart. i always try to keep it easy. where this deal bounces to or how much correction we get on a selloff pushing rates up is important. but until we get a close back

above 2.44, i don't see that you're going to drive out some of those that are bullish on the treasury complex, especially considering the economic deterioration in europe. back to you, kelly. >> an important factor for sure, rick, thank you very much this morning. the dow jones industrial average up 156 points. the nasdaq up about 1%. and a pretty strong trading session today. art cashin calls it geopolitical risk off response. we'll see what happens throughout the rest of the session. we'll be right back. don't just visit new york.

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welcome back. it's been all the talk and indeed for the past week or so on cnbc, we've been talking about the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness and money for als. about $15.5 million have been donated so far, compared with just $1.8 million this time last year. so you can see the trend. and the top names in technology have been among those dousing themselves and donating money at the same time. you can do the same. you go to alsa.org to donate. while you're doing that, check out some of the highlights from the past week.

>> ah! ♪ >> that was really cold. >> i'm passing the challenge on to four amazing women. kara swisher. >> shall we do it? >> one, two, three! >> we bring this up because with us right now is cakara swisher re/code. great to see you.

>> thanks. >> let's begin with some of today's top stories in tech. rupert murdoch ripping google in a multitweet rant on twitter writing, quote, nsa privacy invasion bad, but nothing compared to google. >> yeah. >> piracy leader is google who streams movies free, sells ad tvs around them, no wonder. pouring millions into lobbying. >> obviously google and news corp. go back and forth the way netflix does with everybody else. murdoch makes it personal. that's quite an accusation to say it's worse than the nsa given what the nsa was doing and a little hypocritical, too, given what they did. >> he runs -- i mean, he runs websites, too. it's a little bit ridiculous, right? he's collecting as much information -- or maybe slightly less cookie data than they are, right? >> yeah. and they had a little issue with phone hacking.

>> yeah. >> it's an interesting thing, but i think he gets on the ipad on sunday and he just starts to vent. he does this a lot. google seems to be a particular focus for him. he's got big issues with the company and their content. and it goes back to youtube and other things like that. but he takes aim at them in a very -- i would say goes over and beyond what other companies do between two companies. but it's interesting. he definitely is rupert murdoch. and he's going to do what he wants to do and say what he wants to say. i don't think he cares at this point. >> but kara, do you think there's something more to it? >> you know, might he be in washington, people in washington who are underlying all of this, or should we just take these at face value? >> i think he's home on on a sunday. he's talked about this issue before, the hypocrisy of google collecting all this information and then complaining about the nsa. to say they're worse than the nsa is to me a step too far. you know, i think he's trying to raise these issues about the

power of these companies like google over companies like his, too, because they are the new gatekeepers. and in the old days rupert murdoch was the gatekeeper. he has power he doesn't have. he's reacting to it. >> that's a point. and you can read more of the tweets with rupert murdoch with kara we've been taking a look at tech ceos doing the ice bucket challenge to raise money and awareness for als. he challenged our own carl quintanilla. mark zuckerberg also completed it, challenged his coo, sheryl sandberg, and here she is. >> i'm passing the challenge on to four amazing women. kara swisher. >> shall we do it? >> one, two, three! >> all right. kara, we know you cannot back down from that. do you have the bucket? >> i know.

yes, i do have the bucket. and sheryl sandberg is just not as nice as she seems. that's all i have to say. but you know, i am now your tv dancing monkey, by the way. i've officially become nbc's dancing monkey. it's a really good cause, and i have never participated in internet mems. i never did the harlem shake, but this is for a good cause. i'm going to challenge a couple people, yahoo!'s marissa mayer, big surprise, rupert murdoch because he needs to cool off, obviously, and i'm going to challenge my friend jennifer beals who was very famous with a famous shower scene in "flashdance," and jennifer, what a feeling this is going to be and i'm really not looking forward to it. with further ado, i guess i'm going to have to now become an internet meme. here we go. you ready? >> would you like a countdown? >> oh. nice. >> no delay there. >> anyway. >> how cold is it, kara? >> thank you so much. all right. bye. >> i am dying to see if marissa

does it in the next 24 hours. >> i hope so. she's waiting with a bucket next door. so, you know. she wants to keep competitive with me. >> we'll know by the end of the 11:00 hour tomorrow, i guess, right? >> great. i am really wet right now. i've got to tell you. it's kind of fun. you should do it, jon. all you guys should do it. >> kara, thank you so much. >> thanks a lot. >> i know she mentioned the challenges have 24 hours to complete it. so guys, game on. jon, thank you so much for being here this hour. >> thank you. it's my first set walkoff. good-bye, guys. >> that's how we do it around here. he walks off and ben willis walks on. for more on the markets we are bringing ben in from princeton securities to talk about this rally, ben. >> it's basically a rebound from some of the selling we saw on friday, if you remember. part of it, there was a concern that some of the information coming out of the ukraine was having an effect on the market. but, you know, groups like cnbc that are smart enough to have

people on the trading floor realize that there was really nothing to that story. so it was actually a buying opportunity on friday. and we're seeing that follow-through again technically driven markets in lack of participation on a summer week. so we broke through a resistance level, and here we are. we're seeing a continuation of that follow-through. >> any icebergs ahead, or is it smooth sailing? >> i don't see any icebergs, but jackson hole is coming up. you never do. i was a captain of the "titanic." jackson hole's coming up. that's probably going to be your one opportunity to trade on information that's coming out of wyoming on that respect. but i'm still -- the bigger picture for me is still bullish for equities. as the markets continue to churn and find ways to place money when money leaves one of the asset classes like we saw in the junk bond market, now we're starting to see some -- journal" today telling us there's some institutional buying. as that starts to happening whether they're selling gold or

oil, the net effect eventually will be a positive for equities. and that will, i think, that trend continues. >> even the ice bucket challenge can't cool things off around here. have you done it yet? >> i have not. art's challenged me. i think it's absolutely brilliant marketing. i've never seen a charity take hold like this. and it's kudos to whoever invented the system. it's really bringing awareness to what needs to be for als. i mean, look at the air time it's getting all over the world. >> kelly, maybe can you challenge ben when you, later today? how long do you have to answer your sister's challenge? >> probably only about six or seven or more hours. yeah. we'll see. but as you said, monetizing attention is something that all of these names we invest and do every day. now perhaps a lot of the nonprofits are looking at this and going to get in on it as well. >> yeah. it's hard to capture this lightning in a bottle, though. it actually started -- it wasn't even about als when it first started but became about that. so it will be interesting to see

if others can latch on. >> jon fortt, thank you for letting me ride along. ben willis, appreciate your perspective on the markets. on a strong session. that does it for us here on "squawk alley." as we hit noontime on the east coast with the dow up 160 points, we'll hand it over to "fast money halftime report." scott? >> kelly thanks so much. big day on the street today. welcome to "the halftime show." let's meet today's starting lineup. joe terranova, stephanie link runs jim cramer's charitable trust. jim is the president of asset manager. pete najarian and managing director of douglas c. lane and has $3.9 billion under management. great to have you all with us. we begin with the markets. stocks are surging today as at least for the moment, tensions in ukraine appear to have cooled slightly. still the global markets remain volatile and capable of moving on headline from a number of different flash points around the world. how should we be feeling about a market